PLO Executive Committee Member Dr. Hanan Ashrawi condemned today's adoption in the second and third reading of a draft law that would allow Israel to deduct welfare payments to Palestinian prisoners’ families and the families of Palestinian martyrs from custom revenues transferred to the Palestinian government by Israel:

“Israel insists on punishing its own victims and criminalizing any and all forms of resistance to its illegal and oppressive system of colonization.Such a bill is an egregious violation of international law and international humanitarian law and constitutes a collective punishment of the Palestinian people other than being outright theft.Palestinian revenues should not be subject to Israeli jurisdiction. As a military occupying power, Israel controls all movement in and out of the occupied Palestinian territory and as such, it collects customs on behalf of the Palestinian government and charges in return an excessive amount of 3% of the total which renders the occupation even more profitable.”